By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
LINWOOD — Heading into a tough stretch of games, the Mainland Regional boys lacrosse team is right where it wants to be — mixing a high-scoring offensive attack with some outstanding defense, as well as the solid goalkeeping of Hunter Faunce.
The Mustangs have St. Augustine Prep and Oakcrest on the docket next week, and are gearing up for a highly anticipated showdown with rival Ocean City under the lights on Tuesday, April 25 at Carey Stadium. On Saturday, Mainland took care of business early and often, jumping out to an 8-2 lead in the first quarter before cruising to a 17-5 win over Northern Burlington.

Matt Edwards had his best game of the season, pouring in four goals, while Vincent Giunta added four goals and three assists and Keegan Ford chipped in with another three goals and two assists. Dylan Dill, Matt Ognibene and Gavin Somers led a strong defensive effort in front of Faunce, who registered eight saves. In all, six players scored, as Ethan Irazarry and Antonio Yeoman each added a pair and Andrew Bradley chipped in with a goal. Yeoman and Irazarry also combined for six assists.

“Keegan’s good, Ethan’s good, Vince, Antonio, Andrew, they’re all good players. We have a lot of good chemistry,” Edwards said. “Next week is going to be huge for us. We play the Prep and then Oakcrest, then we have Ocean City (on April 25). We’re really hyped for that one.”
“Last year, we played (Northern Burlington) and we only one by one or two goals, so we knew a little bit about them. We knew we had to win the 50-50s, win the ground balls and have long possessions, and that’s what we did. We’re rotating through our attackmen and middies, and we’re all getting good looks and good touches,” Giunta said. “We’re figuring stuff out. We have good chemistry right now, and hopefully we’ll bring that into Monday’s game against the Prep. That’s going to be a tough one.”
“I just talked to a former player, Colin Kaczmarski, and I was telling him today was the first game they played as a complete unit, all four quarters, and that’s what we need them to do. What’s incredible this year is pretty much everybody on our offense can score. The way they were moving the ball, passing it around,” said Mainland coach Clayton Smith. “Right in the beginning we heard them say, ‘No. 13! No. 13!’ Then, two passes later, Matt Edwards scores. Then, ‘No. 18! No. 18!’ Then Andrew Bradley scores. They wanted to key on a couple of guys, but they just couldn’t.”
The game was tied early, 1-1, but after a few minutes it was all Mainland. Yeoman found Ford right in front of the net to give the Mustangs a 3-1 lead, then Ford scored again on a counterattack to make it 4-1. Mainland scored three more goals, including two by Giunta and one by Irazarry, to push the lead to 7-1 before Northern Burlington got on the board again. But, by halftime the lead had swelled to 12-2.
Smith said he was impressed with Edwards, a senior who started getting some time in the lineup last year and has become a solid offensive option for the Mustangs this year.
“Last year, Matt Edwards had a breakout game against Lower Cape May when we had to sit a player, and we noticed then he was going to be a good player and that’s why he’s one of our starting attackmen now,” Smith said. “He’s becoming comfortable, and we saw that today. He doesn’t mind being in the middle mixing it up.”
Mainland has been on fire its last three games, scoring 50 goals, and Smith said he’s excited to play some tough competition in the next 10 days.
“We have some tough games coming up,” he said. “I’m looking for a highly competitive game on Monday, then we have Oakcrest on Friday.”
Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays